It has been clear since August that Instagram has been trying to spice up its portfolio by taking notes from Snapchat’s playbook by offering people new ways of sharing content.ey
The notes they took include launching Stories for people to post ephemeral messages to their audiences which is separate from the general Instagram timeline. They also added Live Video and Disappearing Messages which takes a jab at both Periscope and Snapchat and they are still not done yet. According to the company, they have introduced new updates to make Instagram more fun to use during the festive season.
First includes the addition of Stickers which are not new phenomena in social networks. When you take a photo or video, you will see a new stickers button which is next to the text and drawing tools. You can then choose the sticker of choice from categories like the weather, time or even your location, just like the ones on Snapchat. You can move them around and there are several styles on board for your own choosing.
Instagram has also added a set of holiday stickers which is thanks to the upcoming festivities. A specific candy cane brush on the tools will allow you to add holiday themed stickers to your Stories.
There is also the addition of a Hands-free option on Instagram which will allow you to record video without necessarily holding on to the virtual button. This will be perfect if you will be performing a task that involves both of your hands.
For iOS users specifically, Instagram will now let you save our entire story from the past 24 hours to your camera roll which will be saved as a single video. This is awesome since it will let you preserve those Stories that you might have not saved on the general timeline for later use.
The new updates will be available on the iOS and Android apps (version 10.3)